1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a control for several elevator groups with destination call control and immediate allocation, in which all destination call controls are combined into a common multigroup control.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The previous solutions of transport of persons in large buildings are based on division of the building into individual zones which mostly are each served by a respective elevator group.
With conventional two-button controls as well as with previous destination call controls, such as, for example, for the group control equipment that has become known through EP 356 731, the passenger must first find the group which serves his desired floor. Only then will the appropriate UP or DOWN floor call or, in the case of the destination call control, the destination call be entered in the case of the conventional control. Although the traffic flow of persons is simplified in the case of the destination call group control, the search for the appropriate elevator group, however, still remains.
A destination call control with a dynamic sector allocation for an elevator group has become known by US Patent No. 5,382,761. A new destination call is in that case allocated either to an elevator car, the sector to be served by which includes the destination floor, or the new destination call is allocated to a car which is not yet associated with an existing sector or the sector of which lies near to the destination floor and is enlarged to this. The control in that case takes into consideration the size of the already fixed sectors and allocates the new destination call to the smallest sector. A respective display, which indicates the served sector, is arranged above each elevator.
In the case of the afore-described destination call control with dynamic sector allocation, the passenger can enter his desired destination floor and must then, by reference to the displays, find the elevator which serves his floor. If several elevators are present, the search for the correct elevator proves to be arduous, especially when many persons are at a main stop at a peak traffic time. In addition, the search for the correct elevator becomes more difficult when the individual elevator groups are not arranged in ascending or descending sequence adjacent to one another.